38.
With regard to the assessment procedures in the Mass Transit Office, the Mass Transit Adviser has taken the initiative to produce a manual of practice covering all the activities of the Mass Transit Office to encapsulate both the practice and experience which has been evolved and developed over the years during the construction of the Modified Initial System, the Tsuen Wan Extension and the Island Line of the Mass Transit Railway. The draft manual of practice, which will include the assessment procedures, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1985.
39.
Head 11 - Fees and Charges. Subhead 025. Building Development Department (020). Services to the Urban Council. In paragraph 152 of my previous report I referred to an omission by the Director of Building Development to recover from the Urban Council consultants' fees amounting to $368,000 incurred in respect of work on projects which were subsequently abandoned by the Council. The omission stemmed from the absence of a satisfactory system to ensure that such fees were duly recovered. In response to my observations, the Director of Building Development conducted a comprehensive review of other abandoned projects handled by consultants with a view to recovering from the Urban Council all costs incurred as soon as the accounts in question were finalized. As a result a sum of $1.5 million (including the amount of $368,000) has since been recovered from the Council.
40.
In the course of a follow up audit inspection, I noted that the Urban Council had not been charged for abortive work on projects handled in-house by the Architectural Office of the Building Development Department which were subsequently abandoned, notwithstanding that under administrative arrangements made with the Urban Council in 1973 the Council was required to pay to the Government the full cost of all staff, services and materials provided by the Government. Based on a test check of such abandoned projects I estimated that an amount of $300,000 was recoverable from the Council. I suggested to the Director of Building Development that the Urban Council should be charged for the abortive work based on the estimated cost of each project and the stage of works reached when the decision to abandon the project was taken.
41.
In reply, the Director of Building Development has informed me that he is in general agreement with my proposal. The Director has commented that he has felt concerned for some time about the amount of abortive work which is being done by the Architectural Office in respect of Urban Council projects for which no recompense is received, citing the decision not to proceed with the Temporary Science Museum project as a good illustration. The Architectural Office had spent 1,440 mandays on this project before it was abandoned.